The design of aerospace systems such as missiles and other projectiles relies heavily on the identification of system requirements early on in the development process. Having these firmly defined at an early stage gives engineers the capability of rapidly identifying configurations suitable for the required missions to begin the detailed, evolutionary design process. Aerospace systems require a careful balance between performance and mission objective. This balance forces designers to continuously trade off different aspects of the system to attain the best, most cost effective alternative. However, it is not uncommon for system requirements to shift, or even not to be fully identified, during the initial phases of a program. Depending on the complexity of the system, these setbacks could prove costly, both budget- and schedule-wise.
Most design efforts rely on trial-and-error approaches that leverage well-known trends and are often too general for the application of interest. This process can be quite lengthy and the end results are highly dependent on the designer's experience. For example, aerodynamic platforms such as missiles include numerous components that greatly affect performance in a nonlinear manner. Changes in a single component can potentially destabilize a previously aerodynamically-stable missile. Therefore, trial-and-error approaches may not be the most adequate for the problem at hand, as they may not result in the best-fit solution or be very effective or cost-efficient.
Moore et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,682 issued Apr. 13, 2004, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference, describe an improved aeroprediction code (APC) that allows aerodynamics to be predicted for Mach numbers up to 20 for configurations with flares. Moreover, the improved APC advantageously extends the static aerodynamic predictions for Mach numbers less than 1.2, improves the body alone pitch damping for Mach numbers above 2.0, and develops a new capability for pitch damping of flared configurations at Mach numbers up to 20. The improved APC also permits determination of aerodynamic effects associated with power-on events and trailing edge flaps.